Ron Paul is down but not out

Politico | April 26 2008

Two candidates not named John McCain got a combined 219,913 votes in the Pennsylvania Republican primary Tuesday, and one of them is still in the race.

Sort of.

“I’m a real candidate, but I try to keep everybody living in the real world,” Ron Paul said in an interview, alluding to the exuberance of his supporters.

Despite posting a video on his website last month conceding that he couldn’t win and indicating that he was winding down his campaign, Paul continues to be a presence in the GOP contest. He aired a radio ad before the Pennsylvania primary, is still traveling the country to appear at campaign events and, as of the end of March, had more than $5 million in the bank.

New York Times | April 26 2008

Retired officers have been used to shape terrorism coverage from inside the TV and radio networks.

The Pentagon announced on Friday that it was suspending its briefings for retired military officers who often appear as military analysts on television and radio programs.

On Sunday, The New York Times reported that since 2002 the Pentagon has cultivated several dozen military analysts in a campaign to generate favorable coverage of the administration’s wartime performance. The retired officers have made tens of thousands of appearances for television and radio networks, holding forth on Iraq, Afghanistan, detainee issues and terrorism in general.

Records and interviews show that the Bush administration worked to transform the analysts into an instrument intended to shape coverage from inside the major networks.

VLOGZ.TV | April 24 2008
SAN DIEGO -- Military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide is not giving up on a training facility in San Diego County, according to company officials.

The company is planning to open an indoor facility in Otay Mesa. It would be housed in a 61,600-square-foot building on Siempre Viva Road, just south of Brown Field. The news comes one month after Blackwater abandoned a controversial proposal to build a training center in the far East County.

Blackwater applied for the permit in February, shortly before announcing that it would drop plans to develop an 800-acre ranch near Potrero into a training camp for law enforcement. The city of San Diego approved a permit for the indoor facility on March 19.

THE BLACKWATER FILES:
Report: Blackwater Finds New Home In South BayNBC Sandiego.com, CA
Iraq PM condemns US Blackwater contract extensionReuters

The announcement that General David Petraeus is to take over at US Central
Command

VLOGZ.TV | April 24 2008

Defense Secretary Robert Gates's announcement Wednesday promoting General David Petraeus from his current post running the war in Iraq to head up U.S. Central Command triggered both political and military unease. That response may be inevitable, coming on the downside of an unpopular war and in the waning months of the tenure of the unpopular President who launched it.<What the Petraeus Promotion Means>

• Petraeus Points to War With Iran Yahoo! News
• Top Ten Quotes From Petraeus Hearings Human Events, DC
• Petraeus Leaving Iraq; Odierno to Take Over Washington Post, United States